Following the recent death of Councillor Norman Wright, Adur District Councillor for Cokeham Ward, a by-election has now been called by the UKIP.
To put this in context, while it is the privilege of any political party to do so, in this case, to call a by-election for what is the last 6 months of a 4 year term of office is a pure waste of public money. Whoever is elected, it will make no difference to the balance of control at Adur or any of the committees, and the public have the right to know why £6,000 of public money, over £1,000 a month purely for putting a Councillor back for 6 months, is being wasted in this fashion at a time of national financial concern and restraint.
Of course the Conservative Group who had already refused to call the by-election in the circumstances, will now have to put up a candidate as it is right for the public to have a choice where to place their vote.
It is just a sad fact of life that the UKIP did not have a public conscience when deciding to call the election, and put the needs of the community first rather than their pure naked political ambition. Hopefully the public will recall this decision when they go to the polls on 18th October.